Silent Pining
by laurelsmoak
Summary: "He thought back to the mission from previous night, how the drug dealers laid there. Their throats all slit. Crimson blood forming what seemed like oceans. Someone dangerous had come to Central City." When a mysterious new criminal shows up in Central City, Artemis and The Flash try to stop them. Spitfire AU inspired by Arrow and The Flash. Rated T for violence.
1. Crimson Blood

**Author's Note:** So this is a Spitfire fanfic inspired by Arrow and The Flash :) I hope it's not too bad even though it's my first fanfic. This is an AU where Artemis and Wally are best friends for 5 years and work as Artemis and The Flash together. Artemis' archery skills still come from her father, but I'll get into that later. Rated High T for violence. Leave a review?

 _I do not own Young Justice or anything else besides the plot._

* * *

 _ **Silent Pining**_

She likes the way they just look at each other, reading the others thoughts. She often bit her lip when they did this. It helped on missions. They rarely talked during their time as The Flash and Artemis anymore. They didn't need to. She stood there, thinking about their mission the previous night. They had traced a local drug dealer to a warehouse, but were disappointed when the only people there were their dead bodies lying on the floor. She couldn't stop thinking about the look in his eyes, or the- "Um… Artemis? You there?" Wally said as he waved his hand in Artemis' face. She woke up from her trance and saw Wally there, a usb drive in one hand. She realized that he had asked her to come up to his lab a few minutes ago.

"Need me to decrypt that?" Artemis asked. Wally nodded and extended his hand to give her the drive. Their fingers briefly touch, which triggers butterflies in Artemis' stomach. Wally can see a small smile form on her face.

"What's got you so happy?" Wally asked, knowing Artemis Crock smiling was a rare occurrence.

"Just thinking about a funny cat video I saw earlier." she lied, her face back to its regular emotionless state. Wally knew she was lying, but decided to let it go. He thought back to the mission from previous night, how the drug dealers laid there. Their throats all slit. Crimson blood forming what seemed like oceans. Someone dangerous had come to Central City. Wally was still new to the superhero business and had never seen anything like it. He thought that the new criminal must of mistaken Central City for Star City. Recently, they weren't the only one.

"Where's the drive from?"

"We found it chasing after Barton Mathis. He must of dropped it."

"The Dollmaker? How did he escape from Iron Heights?"

"He was in a coma, healing from his Canary inflicted injuries. Then yesterday, when he woke up, he made a run for it."

"Sounds like something we should take care of."

Artemis checked to see if anyone had heard her, forgetting that she was in Wally's lab. She reminded herself that she was just Artemis Crock, a regular CSU technician working for the Central City Police Department. She was new to her job, as she'd previously worked at Star Labs as a bioengineer before the night of the particle accelerator. Her best friend of 5 years (at the time) was being taken care of at Star Labs after he'd been struck by lighting and entered comatose. When he woke up, her boss Harrison Wells decided that it would be best if Artemis kept a closer eye on Wally. So she took up a recently vacated job as a CSU tech at the CCPD, where Wally worked as a CSI.

"Relax, even if someone heard we would be fine. Police department remember?" he said.

"I'm going to get working on this." she said holding up the usb drive.

"See you tonight?" he asked.

"You bet." she assured him as she walked out of the lab.

* * *

Artemis walked up to their base of operations, a vacant Star Labs. Everyone had cleared out and moved to a new location, leaving the perfect place for the two heroes to work every night. It still looked like a regular Star Labs because their base was located behind a fake wall that only certain people had access to. She placed her hand next to the concealed door and a large opening appeared next to her. In the room, two glass cases with dummies designed to their individual biometrics showed off their uniforms. There was a large amount of computers for Artemis to do her hacking on, and shelves for all of her combat equipment. Artemis sat down in the very comfy chair and started to look for possible missions for them that night. She heard the door open. Quickly grabbing the gun on the desk, she turned around and was relieved to see it was just Wally. Before she could say anything, Wally had pinned her to the ground. "What the hell, Wally?" she groaned.

"Sorry I saw the gun and just started running." They were still on the ground. It was definitely awkward, but they didn't say anything to each other. Artemis looked at his eyes. They reminded her of Spring, the way that they were so green. And his hair. The floppy red mess of hair reminded her of the leaves you would see during the Fall. "Liking what you see?" he asked playfully, wiggling his eyebrows. She let a small chuckle loose.

"Not even if you were the last man on Earth." she answered. Artemis knew that wasn't even close to the truth, but Wally didn't have to. "Now can I get up?" Wally stood up and she followed. "So, you feel like investigating further into last night's mission?" she asked the speedster.

He remembered the bodies lying on the floor. He didn't want to see something like that ever again and he sure as hell was going to make sure it wouldn't happen again. "Definitely. You got anything?"

"Not yet. I'm going through traffic and security camera footage to see if I can find anything. Whoever this is shorted out all cameras within a 5 block radius of the warehouse." she said while skimming through the footage.

"Wait- pause it." Artemis paused the footage. "Look at that." he pointed to an orange blur sitting in a car. "Who's that?" he asked. She zoomed in on the blur and enhanced the footage.

"Even with enhancing, I doubt the facial recognition software will work."

"This is Delta-Charlie 52. Requesting immediate backup. Over." a voice spoke from one of the computers. Wally and Artemis exchanged a quick glance.

"Can you get his location?" Wally asked.

"Already got it. He's at Star Labs." Artemis said while packing her things.

"What do you think he wants?"

"Let's go find out."

* * *

So, how was that? I feel somewhat satisfied with it. Sorry it's so short. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them.

\- laurelsmoak


	2. Liquid Polymer

**Author's Note:** This chapter is so cheesy I'm cringing so hard. This has a lot of 11:59 in it, so be prepared ;) Thank you for the 2 follows and the review it means a lot that anyone at all is reading this (I am aware of how pathetic that sounds). Sorry if any details in my last chapter or in this one are inaccurate or unrealistic, I know as much about the police as Phoebe does in 5x16 of Friends. "I'm Buffay. Homicide." Since this is an AU, Sara didn't actually kill The Dollmaker, she just injured him really badly. Rated High T for violence.

 _I do not own Young Justice or anything else besides the plot._

* * *

 _ **Liquid Polymer**_

Artemis quickly and quietly snuck through one of the doors. Wally, on the other hand wasn't as discreet. He raced through the door, knocking down a table and a handful of glass beakers in the process. Discretion wasn't a concern though, seeing as many cops were already shooting at a man. There was a girl, strapped to a table, with tubes going down her throat. A strange white fluid was flowing through the tube, inching closer into her mouth. "Dollmaker." Artemis muttered. The cops had stopped shooting as much as they were a minute ago, due to the man hiding behind the girl and using her as a shield. Artemis snuck behind him, her footsteps silent. She shot an arrow through the tube, knocking it out of the poor girl's mouth. Artemis swiftly disappeared, luckily before The Dollmaker could see her. A blur appeared next to where she was hiding. She scrunched her eyebrows, Wally taking that to mean "Where were you?" He pointed to a bleeding and freshly bandaged cop laying behind a metal table. "Good." she whispered.

"So!" the man shouted. "The young heroes have come to save the day, haven't they?" He cocked his gun to give off a warning. Artemis stepped out of hiding, an arrow already nocked in her bow. Wally knew this was just a distraction. He sped over to the girl, removing her restraints.

"Run. Now." he said in a hushed voice. He looked over to Artemis, who was in the middle of a fight with Barton. They repeatedly attacked, blocking the other time after time. It went on and on. Wally realized that he had forgotten about the cops, and he turned around to see most of them knocked out cold and lying on the floor. He started dragging them over to the other injured cop he had taken care of earlier. There were many cops, making it somewhat time consuming to drag all of them there. As time consuming something could be if you were The Flash. Before he could drag the last officer over, he heard the firing of a gun. What happened next seemed like it lasted hours. He slowly turned around to see a bullet slowly making its way towards Artemis. He took off instantly, but he missed it. He missed the bullet. By the time he got to Barton, the bullet had already hit Artemis. He screamed "No!" and raced over to Artemis, punching the Dollmaker in the face before leaving. She was bleeding out on the floor, her blood resembling the oceans that the drug dealer's had. Artemis spit up some blood.

"W-Wally." she said, barely being able to form the words.

"Artemis. Stay with me ok? Please don't leave." he said, the words being interrupted by tears. He failed to stop the bleeding.

"Stop it. You know I-I'm not making it. Just- just listen. I-I love you. I have for a while now. I j-just wanted you to know before I kicked it." she barely managed to force out, her words slurred. Wally stayed there, holding her, pretending not to notice the large amounts of blood seeping into his suit. He was shocked, overwhelmed, a number of things. He was so shocked that he forgot that he could easily bring her to a hospital. He picked her up in a bridal carry and ran the fastest he had ever run. The buildings blurred past him as she struggled to stay awake. He would do anything, run anywhere, to save her.

"Hold on Artemis. We're almost there." he whispered as he held her close. He ran so fast he didn't even blame himself. Tell himself that he wasn't fast enough, not fast enough to catch the bullet, maybe not even fast enough to get Artemis to the hospital in time.

* * *

He carried her into the hospital, not sure what to do next. He ran into an empty room and set her down on the bed. A doctor walked into the room, her eyes widening at the sight of the bleeding hero and a speedster in a bright yellow suit. "You need to help her! Now!" he pleaded.

She stared at Artemis for a few seconds. "I need a trauma team, now!" she yelled. "I know you want to be with her. But you can't. Not right now. Not if you want her to survive. So please, get out of here. Now." the doctor told Wally, trying to keep her tone as kind and respectful as she could. He nodded his head and ran out of the hospital. He ran out of the block. The city. The next one. As far as he could get. Until he finally stopped. He stood there. In the middle of nowhere. And he screamed. He screamed until he couldn't anymore, and his throat was dry and scratchy. His knees buckled, then finally gave out. On the verge of tears, he just stayed there, on the ground, his heart plunged in hate. He hated himself. He hated that he couldn't save her, he hated The Dollmaker. He had never considered how dangerous what they did was. For the past year they had gone out and risked their lives, but he never stopped and wondered about how he could get hurt. At least he hadn't. He replayed the accident in his head. Painstakingly going over every detail. The girl, the cops. Artemis smiling at him when he showed her the bandaged cop. Her bleeding on the floor. Her telling him that she… that she loved him. She loved him. Was that why she risked her life everyday? Because of him? He shivered at the thought.

"How long have I been here?" he whispered. He sped back into the city. He was back in the hospital, with his civilian clothes on. He waited outside her room. After about 10 minutes of waiting, the doctor he had talked to before came out.

"She made it." she told him. Wally smiled. "You can see her now, she's resting." He mouthed a thank you and walked into her room.

"Hey Wally." Artemis said weakly.

"How are you doing?" Wally asked her.

"I'm not dead, so there's that." she replied. He hugged her, glad to see she was back to her normal sarcastic self. Her eyes widened when she realized the last thing she said to Wally before passing out. Wally let go of her and sat down in the chair positioned next to Artemis' chair.

" _You don't do this because you… you love me right?"_ Wally wanted to ask. She cringed at how awkward this was.

"So did you get The Dollmaker?"

"Be right back." he said before zipping off to the warehouse. All the police officers were gone, so he ran to the precinct. There he found Mathis in handcuffs and sitting in a chair. He smiled briefly and ran back to the hospital.

"They got him." he informed her while walking into her room.

"Good." Artemis shifted a bit, as her current position made her uncomfortable. Or maybe it was just their situation making her uncomfortable.

He cleared his throat and said "Need anything? I-I can get you a pillow or a-"

"I'm fine Wally." she glanced at what she was wearing, which was one of those hospital dresses she despised. Then she realized something. "Do they know I'm Artemis? Not Artemis Crock, Artemis Artemis. I know it sounds the same but you get what I mean right?" she whispered. Wally let a small laugh loose.

"I think the doctors have some patient confidentiality thing. I'm not sure. I'll check on my way out."

"Thanks. For everything." she tried to hug him, and things grew more awkward as they struggled to hold on to each other.

"Oh- ok- wait- oops- sorry."

"You know what, we'll hug later."

'Y-yes, yeah we should um- do that." Artemis spoke in fragments, cringing at her loss of complete sentences. Wally stood up.

"I have to get up early for my job- and I have to- yeah. See you tomorrow." he said as he walked out of the room.

"Oh crap." she muttered, her head in her hands.

* * *

Hope you liked it! The next chapter is going to be very S2 Fitzsimmons. Get ready. Leave a review? See you next week :)

-laurelsmoak


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